A rhizomatic research story about the changing landscapes of rooftop urbanism in Peckham, London

Abstract

In this article, I introduce rooftop urbanism as a landscape between earth and sky. The concept of landscape provides a framework within which rooftop urbanism can be studied as a multi-sensuous, bodily lived relation with rooftop sites at various heights in the urban fabric. Through encounters with the materialities of the roof and the rooftoppers of the former Pioneer Health Centre in Peckham, London, I craft a rhizomatic research story. I discuss the moving landscape experienced by inhabiting a rooftop above ground level and under the sky, and how the mobile landscape can be an affective means of sense-making, connecting rooftoppers beyond the rooftop. Given that changing landscapes cannot be reconstructed, I evoke impressions using images and words, which can then be read as expressions for further thought.

Keywords:

• Landscape
• movement
• mobility
• multi-sensual
• rooftop
• urbanism

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank the rooftoppers for their involvement in this study. I am especially grateful to Alan, Stella and Pete for their support and interest in my research. Lastly thanks to the anonymous reviewers and Vito Laterza for their insightful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The agreement with Alan and Peter to conduct research about their rooftop terrace practices and to assist me in contacting the other residents was based on mutual trust and enthusiasm (Heggen, 2007; 245) – from me as a researcher and from them as rooftop residents. My choice to proceed with these two residents was based on a relational ethics perspective, where the focus is on the quality of relationships in a research situation (Gunzenhauser, 2007, p. 236). To contact the other residents, I sent an information letter to Alan, who distributed it to residents’ mailboxes prior to my research visit. Residents (including Alan and Peter) who agreed to participate gave their informed consent, with interviews taking place on the rooftop terrace of the respective resident. All resident participants were sent an initial draft of the article and given the opportunity to comment on, edit or delete sections related to their individual information. Where participants are identifiable through the use of their name and/or photographs, this was done with their agreement. I contacted the two other (non-resident) research participants by email. I received from the Pioneer Health Foundation’s chair of trustees the email address of a former student assistant, Henrietta Trotter. When I explained my research interest in the Pioneer Health Centre in December 2018, Ms Trotter shared a short memory in her response. The other research participant, neighbourhood activist Eileen Conn, I found via a web search. Her name appeared in the context of Peckham Levels, a cultural hub in a former car park that hosts a rooftop open to the public. Both of these participants gave consent to use their information in the research article. As a consequence of applying a creative photography method, some residents are recognisable (i.e. their face is visible in the photograph). I therefore chose to refer to them using their proper/real names instead of pseudonyms. In contrast to Lees and Robinson (2021), for example, who conducted research in which Lees as researcher and Robinson as research participant co-produced a narrative of an individual’s attempt to survive displacement, in my research the participants do not belong to a vulnerable group and I did not collect any sensitive data. All participants gave written consent to use of their personal data, except for Henrietta Trotter, with whom I had a phone conversation in which she agreed that the citation from our email exchange and her name could appear in the research article. She has also previously presented her experiences of the Pioneer Health Centre in a podcast (Curtice & Trotter, 2014), and is therefore not anonymous in this context.

2 All but one of the research participants’ voices are paraphrased. The citation from the email exchange with Henrietta Trotter is direct.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Paulina Nordström

Paulina Nordström is Associate Professor at the Department of Global Development and Planning, University of Agder. She holds a PhD in Geography from the University of Turku. Her interests focus on a combination of landscape theory, urban geography, visual methodologies and creativity. She currently develops a research project around landscapes of rooftop urbanism with focus on art, everyday life and urban design.